Artificial Intelligence
AI, which has been hailed as the most revolutionary technology of the 21st century, is transforming all sectors and areas of human endeavor, including education. In the realm of education, AI is manifested in various forms such as virtual assistants that can aid both learners and educators in organizing their schedules and finishing their tasks, tutoring systems that offer tailored learning opportunities to learners of different ages and aptitudes, supporting remote and online education systems by adapting teaching speed to meet the needs of students, facilitating language translation in classrooms with multilingual pupils, and numerous other applications.
Remote, Online, and Hybrid Learning
The advent of the Covid-19 pandemic led to the compulsion for schools, universities, and educational institutions to acquire the competence to provide education remotely. However, even prior to this, there was a revolution brewing in the realm of online education, with the proliferation of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). With remote and online learning in schools, educators can now effectively reach students in the most isolated areas, thereby marking a significant milestone in promoting equal opportunities for education. This development is particularly crucial given that about 270 million children across the world do not have access to education due to residing in remote or rural regions.
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Education systems are increasingly recognizing the value of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) as two forms of extended reality (XR). VR provides users with the ability to immerse themselves in a virtual world, and there are numerous “experiences” that enable us to do everything from traveling back in time and experiencing history through our own eyes, to training for challenging and hazardous tasks such as conducting repairs in unsafe environments. In 2023, virtual classrooms will likely gain popularity, as they offer a more immersive and experiential environment for remote learning and classroom activities. In healthcare training, VR is already being utilized for diverse applications, ranging from enabling nursing students to practice delivering emergency care to training doctors on surgical procedures.
Soft Skills
Soft skills encompass a range of human abilities such as effective communication, teamwork, creative thinking, interpersonal problem-solving, relationship management, and conflict resolution. Unlike technical skills, these human skills are unlikely to be replaced by machines anytime soon. As AI continues to handle numerous routine and mundane technical tasks, the significance of soft skills will only grow in the future. Employers and industries are beginning to place greater value on these skills, which means they will likely be incorporated into technical education to an increasing degree.